


Lion[s] and Lam[b]s

by Onus_Probandi



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Again, And some murder, F/M, Genderbends, Suffer Kat, Yeeet, suffer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-19 23:42:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11908680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onus_Probandi/pseuds/Onus_Probandi
Summary: 2B struggles between himself and 2E when he finds 9S dead.





	Lion[s] and Lam[b]s

Lion[s] and Lam[b]s

* * *

 

The moment her back fades from his sight, he already has his apology formed in his mind. He's not  _ mad  _ at her per se, but he is slightly irritated. That doesn't mean he doesn't want to run after her, beg her to accept his apology and bury his face in her hair. Shit, he's stupid and sentimental and he clings in all the wrong places, an ill fitting of a personality type. But he loves her and he despises making her upset. It's almost as if she cries as they argue, her voice becoming louder to disguise her growing fears that maybe she wasn't good enough for him. Maybe they weren't compatible, maybe he was having those regrets.

He sighs. He knows he has to give her time to process everything he said to her and that his intervention will only make things  _ worse _ . But he wants to make sure she hasn't gotten herself into trouble, as Scanners are wont to find themselves in some sort of peril.

9S is worse, isn't she? Even if she does what she's created for she always ends up...he sighs, massaging his head as he sat down on a crumbling cement block. She's problematic and his job is made harder by the fact that she's...lovely…

He's not good with words – that's her skillset – but he knows that this word is something that describes how he feels about her.

Another word is  _ confused _ .

He looks to the sky, finding the edge of the Bunker as it orbits the Earth.

And then he hears her scream.

“9S?” His heart leaps into his throat – he's heard her say that expression before, hasn't he? – and he stands, running to follow her path.

Crumbling remnants of humanity line the maze around the corner and  _ he can't find her and he hears her scream again. _ “9S! Pod!  _ Where is she _ ?!”

Pod 042 hums the directions in the most irritating monotone known and he follows the sound of her voice. She's saying something, her tone pleading.

“...uys, y-you do-dont need to... I won't tell an-anyone!”

“She's lying!” the 8B, male and about as deep a tenor as 2B’s own voice snaps. “19H, stand back.”

9S’ breath choked her throat, fear sinking into her gut. No...no, she grasped at her useless leg, broken in two places. Suddenly, the threat of excruciating pain didn't seem so terrible and an escape was her only priority.

She didn't want to die...but they were deserters weren't they? They would kill anyone who got too close. And in her stupidity, she had stormed right into their lair.

19H said something in a quiet voice that didn't ceed into what he wanted because 8B groaned.

“She's a goddamn  _ Scanner. _ She has to report back to Command. They're going to find us; do you want to get  _ found _ ?!” A pause. “Then stand back.”

_ Wait, no. I won't tell anyone! _

2B hears a  _ thud _ as he slips, knee scraping against the ground as he skids around the corner. His skin tears as it drags along the ground and it's only when he regains his balance that he ca –

She's breathing hard, red oil trailing down her jacket from the sword rammed deep into her chest. He didn't even hear her scream, meaning that the  _ son of a bitch stabbed one of her vital functions. _

Oh god, she's hurt. She's hurt,  _ she's dying. _

“Nin...9S.” her name is torn out of his throat, hoarse and bloody. “9S!” This time it's clearer and desperate.

She doesn't react, aside from her lips trembling as if to speak. Her hands lay sprawled in the dust of humanity, too weak to reach up and remove the sword from her body.

He draws the attention of the two with her blood on their skin.

Before they can react, he's driven his sword into the 19H, the Healer gasping as blood spurted from his wound. He clutched at the sword, falling to the dust as his pierced Black Box faded into darkness.

_ It's so easy for you to kill, isn't it, 2E? _

8B cries out in distress as his partner dies, turning his rapidly building fury onto his brother model. He had left his weapon in 9S, meaning he had nothing to attack 2B with than his own body. He lunged for the white haired model, tackling him and sending them both crashing into the ground.

He raised a knee, landing a solid blow to 8B’s chin. He recoiled, spitting blood but keeping his grip on 2B’s legs and torso. He squeezed his arms in an attempt to break the pale B model’s ribs. 2B’s body shuddered, feeling desperation seep in.

He's the one who killed 9S. Healers don't have it in themselves to take a life, but B models are separated from E models in definition of  _ who  _ to kill.

And 9S…

2B freed his arm from his side and threw a punch, lacking enough force to hurt but enough to startle his opponent into making a fatal mistake. His grip faltered, and he found himself on the ground, straddled by an android with the same weight of loss and pain heavy on his shoulders. They both had nothing else to lose, having lost the one person who made hell worth wading through.

Except  _ 2E  _ was created to kill those who looked like him. Even without a weapon, he could still come out the gruesome, bloodstained victor. And that was where the advantage lay.

He raised his fist and brought it down onto 8B’s struggling face. False flesh and metallic bone cracked under the force. 2B swung again with his other fist, and thin rifts formed in 8B’s skin, blood and coolant splattering onto his gloves, coat and face.

The fourth contact, 2B hears 8B’s face dent and fracture as he unrelentingly beats the deserter with the rage of a killer kept on the straight and narrow for too long. He couldn't do these things to 9S. He could never dreamed of hurting her and as such, he defied his code for his love and affections. It drove him mad,didn't it? Being 2B was so different from who 2E was.

2E enjoyed this. 2E enjoyed the gurgled pleas of the Battler as he demolished the face that 19H had fallen in love with. 2E could see this gore and not heave his insides on the ground. 2E wasn't disgusted at the way he could kill his fellows with  _ such ease. _

2B was full of shit and that's what killed 9S, again and again and _again and again and again and again and again and again_ **_and again and again and again and again and again and AGAIN AND_**

His knuckles tear open on the sharp edges of 8B’s face and his arms finally come to rest in a pile of pulp and shards of metal.

2E…

2 _ B  _ swallows, closes his eyes and calms his pulse.

And hears her wheezing.

_ 9S. _

He finally looks at her. Her body rests against a wall, her leg bent in all the wrong places and the hilt of a sword between her breasts.

“9S!” Hands that moments ago destroyed a life in a brutal display cup her face, gently, slowly holding her. He knows that she's dying, her body suffering as the slow pain set in.

“I…” She whimpers as breath drives the sword deeper into her body. “Toobie...so...rry…”

He pulls her into his arms, kissing her forehead and holding her in such a way as to not hurt her anymore. “This is my fault... I'm sorry, Nines. I'm sorry.”

She smiles and it  _ kills him _ .

His body shakes with sobs, tears seeping into the fabric of his visor. “Nines...oh, god, Nines.”

He holds her in a way reserved only for death, and when she's gone…

He knows now why he's so adamant about his position at her side. Only he can kill her, because watching her die too soon...it kills him.

He clutches her body, whispering his apology into her deaf ears over and over with just as much anger, desperation and force as 2E had felt.

“Hello, sir! My name is 9S!” She beams at him as if he's the most beautiful, honest and morally upstanding person in the world. “I've been assigned to support you.”

He doesn't say anything as she stands in the doorway, her smile growing more awkward as he doesn't acknowledge it.

“Um...sir? Is something –”

He knows it's stupid and somewhere inside him, 2E stirs, 9S’s clock ticking down so much faster than before.

2B lies to himself. 2B is a piece of shit who can't help but cling to her coattails and beg her to punish him, to love him, to break him down and pick him up.

He kisses her, pulling her into his arms and holding her as if death hung over her once more.

* * *

Days turn into weeks.

Weeks into months.

She watches him from her position above, sighing in time with his breath, hair clinging to her bare skin with sweat.

She loves him, and he kills her. The lion and the lamb, except the lamb is an idiot and keeps riding the lion’s dick while he plots her death.

When she feels the sword stab her through her gut as she clutches at his back while she tries to sleep, she doesn't even blame him. They're both stupid and they both deserve this. She deserves to die and he deserves to suffer.

  
“Hello, I'm 9S. I'll provide support for you, sir.” She smiles at him and he knows it's all about to begin again. He bites down on his apologies and walks away.


End file.
